Toulouse (AsiaNews / Agencies) - The French police have surrounded a house in Toulouse to capture the probable killer of three children and a rabbi at a Jewish school. The siege began at 3 am and has already led to the arrest of the brother of the suspect barricaded in the house. The suspect's mother was also the brought to the scene convince him to give up.
According to Minister of the Interior Claude Guéant he is a young 24 year old French national with an Algerian mother, with reported affiliations with al Qaeda. Guéant said the man - talking with the police besieging him - said he wanted to "avenge the Palestinian children" and to condemn the "crimes" of France in Afghanistan. The young man said he had also spent periods in Afghanistan and Pakistan for military training. Guéant also confirmed that the young man, as he carried out the massacre at the Jewish school had a video camera attached to him to film the murder.
The 24 year old was on the list of suspects after the murder in Montauban and Toulouse of some French soldiers of North African and Caribbean origin. He is also believed responsible for killing Jonathan Sandler, teacher and 30 year-old rabbi, his sons, Arieh and Gabriel, the daughter of the dean of the Ozar Hatorah Jewish school, Myriam Monsonego. The four bodies arrived last night in Tel Aviv to be buried in Israel.
The funeral of the rabbi and the three children will be held in Jerusalem in the late morning. The police expect the presence of several thousand people.